I don’t think I’d encountered another woman’s voice like that up until that point.

Peggy Frew on PJ Harvey

Her first novel House of Sticks won the 2010 Victoria Premier’s Literary Award.

Her second, Hope Farm, is in the running for the country’s most prestigious literary prize, The Miles Franklin Award.

Not bad for someone who describes herself as a "very self-conscious, shy and backward kind of teenager".

"[School] was fairly typical in that the kids who were ‘successful’ were the athletes and the pretty girls. And they were pretty conservative people."

But she did have one pivotal friendship which led her to PJ Harvey’s ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’. It blew her mind.

"Suddenly I was hearing this voice that was so powerful. It was really very angry. It’s such a strong feminist message.

"It’s really confronting.

'Look at this these my childbearing hips, look at these my ruby red ruby lips
Look at these my work strong arms, you’ve got to see my bottle full of charm
I lay it all at your feet, you turn around to me and say back to me
Sheela-na-gig, you exhibitionist!'

"I thought, 'here’s someone who doesn’t care what people think of her'. I don’t think I’d encountered another woman’s voice like that up until that point."

Aside from the strong feminist message, Peggy says PJ Harvey's broader attitude to her art influences her own pursuits.

"When you make anything, when you write a song or a book - unless you’re keeping it for yourself - it’s a product," she says. "Someone’s going to make money out of it. Whether there’s a record label or a publisher.

"Those pressures to produce a product that can be sold, they’re there in the back of your mind. Sometimes they can really start to contaminate the process.

"If there’s one way to write a bad song or a bad book, it’s to think about that endpoint. You should be thinking about what your spark is, what you were trying to express.

"So, whenever I get distracted by that stuff, I can think of someone like PJ Harvey writing a song like ‘Sheela-na-gig’ and how strong you’d have to be to put something like that out there in the world.

"This is really someone who is following their art and doesn’t give a shit what people are going to think of it. And I think that’s one of the most important things to focus on in creativity."

Hear more about the song that changed it all for Peggy Frew on Don't Look Back.